What Macabre things we tell our children.
Goosey Goosey Gander
goosey goosey gander,
wither do you wander?
upstairs and downstairs,
and in my lady's chamber.
there I met an old man
who wouldn't say his prayers.
so I took him by the left leg
and threw him down the stairs.
Jack and Jill
Jack and Jill
went up the hill
to fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down
and broke his crown (meaning he cracked his skull)
and Jill came tumbling after
Rock-a-bye Baby
Rock-a-bye baby,
in the tree top,
when the wind blows,
the cradle will rock,
when the bough breaks,
the cradle will fall,
and down will come baby,
cradle and all.
Georgie porgy, puddin' and pie
kissed the girls and made them cry
when all the boys came out to play,
Georgie porgy ran away.
Lady Bug Lady bug
Lady bug, lady bug,
Fly away home!
your house is on fire!
your children are gone!
All except one,
and that's little Ann,
for she crept under the frying pan.
This one I actually like, though it's not a nursery rhyme, its a song:
"Oh my darling, oh my darling,
My darling Clementine,
You are lost for me forever,
Dreadful sorry, Clementine.
Drove she ducklings to the water
Ev'ry morning just at nine,
Hit her foot against a splinter,
Fell into the foaming brine.
Ruby lips above the water
Blowing bubbles soft and fine,
But alas I was no swimmer,
Neither was my Clementine.
In a churchyard near the canyon
Where the myrtle doth entwine,
There grow rosies and some posies,
Fertilized by Clementine."
I had never really realized the subject of these poems until the other day when I chanced upon the Goosey Gander one. then I thought about the others, and realized, wow, that's what I've been singing?
4 comments :
i love this post, it made me really happy that our world is being contaminated by scary children's rhymes. you know, rock-a-bye baby always made me cry in fear when i was really little. oh, and the clementine one? my dad used to sing that to me, it's my favorite. *julia goes off humming*
You know, an outside observer would be appalled, yet I grew up with some of them, and I didn't think about any deeper meaning, just pretty words. I don't think I was horribly traumatized (on the surface, at least).
rock a bye baby always made me cry too!!! i felt like the little kid was gonna be lost forever after falling, i actually had a nightmare about a baby like that..
i never found a deep meaning either, untill a little while ago, when I realized that what had just been word before actually meant something
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